Thursday, August 14, 2008

Light in the dark corners of anti Death With Dignity politics

There's something about shining a bright light on politics and campaigns that really puts a crimp in some people's day.

Take the campaign against I-1000 (Death With Dignity), for example. The idea that people might know who was financing their efforts was so genuinely heinous that they sued in an effort to keep it quiet.

So what horrible, awful groups were giving to that campaign that they wanted so badly to keep it out of the public eye?

Now it totally makes sense that the Catholic Church would come out against Death With Dignity. They're uber conservative and tend to sport what I consider a fairly twisted definition of "life", when it begins and how it supposed to end. But free speech gives them every right to be wrongheaded and so who am I to stand it their way?

So why work so hard to hide it? Its not like the Catholic Church has a bad rap, right?

Oh...wait.

Each of the Archdioceses pouring money into the coffers of the campaign against Death With Dignity have problems with priest sexual abuse scandals.

And yes, every single one of the Archdioceses that's given to the campaign against I-1000 is involved in multiple sexual abuse scandals with priests. I checked. There were 68 individual Diocesans that had complaints filed against them in Portland alone. In fact, the Archdiocese of Portland was still handing over documentation to attorneys as late as April 2008, after refusing to release them for years. Some of the individuals mentioned in the documents were still being placed in public ministries.

The Portland Archdiocese was in so deep over all the court costs and payments to victims, in fact, that they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2004. They did so presumably to protect parish assets, school money and trust funds from abuse victims seeking restitution for the suffering at the hands of priests.

Apparently they've recovered from their financial woes long enough to shuffle cash up north to the people working against giving citizens autonomy over their own lives.

Religion is their business and also a great source of both money and abuse because the "faithful" believe their tripe.

At least the Catholics have stopped trying to be something their not - representatives of Christ here on earth (if you believe this stuff). Catholics the world over have engaged themselves in politics and making money. The one reason sexual abuse is still prevalent is because the rule of celibacy is an unnatural act.

I hate the hypocrisy of the Catholics teachings but hey, people are better educated now and eventually, common sense must prevail.

In the meantime, in Australia we continue to fight the fight, knowing the Catholics have the ear of both major parties, Liberal and Labor. Eventually we hope for change - perhaps the Greens will one day hold the balance of power to the extent it can make THE difference.